She raised him and helped train him. Now he's a two-time national champion.
Elaine Kerrigan of Freshwater is now the first Humboldt County owner to have a national champion. Her stallion, KB Omega Fahim +++//, earned the national title in both the Arabian Prix St. Georges and Intermediate One in the dressage competitions at the Sport Horse Nationals held Sept. 23-27 at the Idaho Horse Park in Nampa, Idaho.
”He's 12 and he was born right into my arms,” said Kerrigan. “I had his grandmother, his mother and his father.”
KB Omega Fahim +++//, or “Meg” is a blue-black purebred Arabian who stands fifteen one hands high (15.1 hh) -- 61 inches from the ground to the top of the withers -- and weighs approximately 1,000 pounds. One judge remarked that he was happy to see that the champion wore ordinary shoes, according to Kerrigan.
Based on his median scores at other events throughout the year, Meg is a candidate for Arabian Horse of the Year honors.
What are Meg's qualities that helped make him a champion?
”He has great natural ability and a very trainable mind,” said Kerrigan. “And he has an unusually expressive way of moving. Sometimes he's almost too smart.”
Meg was kept at Freshwater Valley Stables and started his dressage career six years ago. He won three highpoint awards with Kerrigan riding him, but in the recent nationals at Nampa, Meg competed with Chelsea Sibley as his
”I knew of her (Sibley) for years and years and years, and she was extremely accomplished,” said Kerrigan.
Because dressage competitions involve a series of complex movements, “It takes oodles of training and the skill of the rider, and highly developed communication between horse and rider,” said Kerrigan.
In the dressage arena, some of the movements involved are “passage” (a slow, suspended trot), “piaffe” (trotting in place), “half-pass” (travels in a diagonal line) and “tempi” (difficult directional changes involving a certain number of counts or strides), so rhythm and gait are important components.
At Meg's high level of competition he is required to wear a double bridle even though Kerrigan said that he would prefer to wear a snaffle bit.
Kerrigan, 58, is one of about 30 members of the North Coast Chapter of the California Dressage Society, which is part of the United State Dressage Federation.
She breeds black Arabian and Shagya Arabian sport horses, and has been training people to ride horses for the past 35 years. For more information see www.kerriganbloodstock.com or call 707-442-6228.
”I primarily work with people who have their own horses,” said Kerrigan.
What is the biggest challenge about training a horse?
”The challenge is getting the horse to figure what you want, but it does not speak English and has every right to be afraid of you,” said Kerrigan.
Kerrigan identified four steps that are involved in the training process: Earning trust, earning cooperation, communicating what you want, and body language.
What does she enjoy most about training horses?
”When I make that mental breakthrough,” said Kerrigan, referring to the part of the process where the horse and rider understand each other and recognize cues.
One person who made a horse-related breakthrough was Kerrigan's younger brother, Mick.
While he was painting Elaine's home in Freshwater, Mick and Elaine were talking about horses. The end result was that Mick and his wife Tina became horse riders and horse owners. When the couple moved to Oregon a few years ago they took their horses and found a home where “they can ride off right out of their yard,” said Elaine.
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